Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You by Peter Cameron

A few people recommended Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You to me. I think Peter Cameron did a great job with his material. The voice the novel is written in is very believable, and I really liked the narrative.

I just wish I liked it more. I should have known better when James Howe, and a friend of mine mentioned the book in the same sentence with The Catcher in the Rye. I have no patience for The Catcher in the Rye, and usually don't have patience for books that are similar. I will say this, of the few books in this vein that I've read, I liked this one much more than other. This one wasn't a chore to read like The Perks of Being a Wallflower was.

Saying it wasn't a chore to finish makes it sound like I hated it. I didn't. I liked it, I just don't think it's something that will stay with me very long, or that I would pick up again.

The biggest issue I probably had is that James was all problems and issues. I didn't see any growth in his character at all. What probably would have been the most interesting part of the book for me was missing. I would have liked to see what happened in the middle of the last chapter. Instead, the book just sort of ends and we get a quick glimpse at the future.

For me, it wasn't exactly clear why James was such a misfit. I didn't really see where his issues were coming from, and just saw excuses. I'm probably not being fair. I'm sure I was the same when I was 17 and 18. I just don't seem to connect to the "aimless and miserable for no apparent reason" characters at all.